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The Bracewell factor

The ride of a New Zealand cricket fan is a turbulent one

Andrew McLean
30-Nov-2004


Worrying days ahead for John Bracewell © AFP
The ride of a New Zealand cricket fan is a turbulent one. Just when it seemed we finally had a Test side to match the one of the late 1980s, John Bracewell was appointed as coach. The result: a rapid descent towards the foot of the ICC Test ladder after New Zealand held third place in October 2003 following the last pre-Bracewell series in India.
New Zealand had not conceded a Test series in two years save the one Test that was lost in Pakistan when the tour was aborted following a bomb blast. However under Bracewell and excluding the two innings victories over Bangladesh in October 2004, New Zealand has won just once from ten Test matches while losing seven.
It is true that he was chosen to arrest New Zealand's poor one-day form. While he has succeeded in that arena so far, the acid test looms over the coming months with eight ODIs against Australia and five against Sri Lanka.
When New Zealand last visited Australia in late 2001 the Test series was drawn. It would be easy to say "well we had Shane Bond" but his figures of 1 for 135, 1 for 74 and 1 for 80 show it was in the VB Series that followed where he made his mark.
Although they are loath to admit it, Australia came perilously close to losing that series as New Zealand turned up to play and then some. Even the loss of strike bowlers Dion Nash and Shayne O'Connor during the first Test was overcome.
This time around New Zealand has produced two spineless performances with Jacob Oram's magnificent hundred at the Gabba being the only significant performance when it counted. There can be no excuses. Mark Richardson, Mathew Sinclair, Stephen Fleming, Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan were all there in 2001, the Australian attack was virtually the same (Michael Kasprowicz in for Brett Lee) and the pitches at Brisbane and Adelaide were excellent.
New Zealand are simply not the same side that posted four centuries in the first innings against India at Mohali in their final hit-out before the Bracewell-era to emulate the same feat achieved against the Australian attack at Perth in the 2001 series.
After losing to Pakistan at Wellington in December 2003, the call from the New Zealand camp was "we only had one bad day". Similar sentiments followed South Africa's series-levelling victory in March 2004, again at Wellington.
On both occasions New Zealand collapsed in the second innings and were unable to halt the opposition's last-innings chase. Remarkably the bat-first-lose trend then occurred in each of the three Tests in England. Whether it was just coincidence or poor tactics matters little: the tide had turned and the fighting spirit was gone.
With New Zealand being humiliated by Australia to complete six Test losses on the trot, it begs the question not only whether Bracewell can do justice to the role of coach and chief-selector he requested, but also if he is the astute tactician New Zealand Cricket thought it was employing?
Ian Chappell, the great Australian captain and long-time commentator, does not believe international sides need full-time coaches. In his view, having a coach second-guessing the captain is untenable. Chappell believes Fleming is suffering on the current tour from too many ideas and theories. When he interviewed Fleming at the toss during the first Test Chappell felt something was different about Fleming's approach compared to that of 2001. The implication is obvious. In contrast to Bracewell, the previous coach, Denis Aberhart, took more of a back-seat role.
Parallel to the on-field failures, the team's attitude and demeanour off it struggles to generate positive vibes. At press conferences the players were robotic. Even when they were thrashing Bangladesh a few weeks ago smiles and laughs from many of the New Zealanders were a rarity.
Onto Australia and little has changed. After the frustrations of Gillespie-McGrath batting effort at Brisbane, had Daniel Vettori's opening line at the press conference been something like "well that was bloody awful" the honesty would have been warmly received.
Whereas the Australians are always looking for a joke at press conferences, the New Zealanders seem to be pre-occupied with not showing any sign of weakness. When the whole world knows you're being flogged out on the park is there any point?
With a Test ranking of seventh and further tough assignments on the way, surely the time has come for the New Zealand team reconsider the whole model because the current one surely isn't working.
Andrew McLean is a presenter of The Cricket Club, New Zealand's only national radio cricket show (www.cricketclub.co.nz)